“…readers braced for powerful emotions will find this collection more than worthwhile.” — Publisher’s Weekly

“These 26 stories could have been dictated by demons from The Twilight Zone, they’re so odd and so distinctively uncommon. They’re also that good, that funny, and that outrageous. Skillingstead has arrived, and there’s no putting his genius back in the bottle now. That’s the happy ending we’re left with as we shut this collection with wide eyes and a big, stunned grin.”
– Kilian Melloy for Edge
(Read the full review here)

“Characterization is the strongest of Skillingstead’s many strong points.”
– Cynthia Ward for Internet Review of Science Fiction

“…each story proclaims that Jack Skillingstead is a major author in the genre of SF.”
– Tangent

“Jack Skillingstead’s stories are smart: smart in the sense of intelligent, savvy, stylish, biting, and succinct. And they all have heart. Choose any tale in Are You There—the Ellisonian opener “The Avenger of Love,” the tersely convolute “Life on the Preservation,” the Shirley Jacksonesque “The Tree,” the poignant closer “Stranger on a Bus,” or any of the gems in between—and that story will flash upon you like a memory, with a light at once familiar and uniquely brilliant. I am not only a reader of these pieces, but a devout admirer of their art.”
— Michael Bishop, author of Brittle Innings

“Jack Skillingstead writes the noir of the future, dark and cool and literate. I loved these stories so much that I worried I’d finish the book and run out of stories. But Jack, thinking ahead, has written more books.”
— Eileen Gunn, author of Questionable Practices

“A generous collection! Skillingstead makes elegant use of classic SF tropes. The wonder is sharp-edged, the dreams disturbing, and the human relations hard and real in ways you won’t find anywhere else!”
— Richard Bowes, author of If Angels Fight

“Protagonists with ruptured childhoods fight solipsism on near-future mean streets tingling with avatars and ghosts and parallels and deaths. Each tale, taken individually, is brilliant.”
— John Clute, Strange Horizons

“Jack Skillingstead is fearless. No one in SF writes about death, sex, loneliness, and love with such searing honesty.”
— Daryl Gregory, author of Pandemonium and Afterparty

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About the Author

In 2001 Jack Skillingtead submitted a story to Stephen King’s “On Writing” contest. He won — and not long afterward he began selling regularly to major science fiction and fantasy markets. To date he has published more than thirty stories in various magazines, Year’s Best volumes and original anthologies... Read full bio